News » Washington Capitals on Thursday night

PITTSBURGH (AP) It was an emotional night for the Pittsburgh Penguins and their beloved former goaltender Washington Capitals Hoodies Womens , Marc-Andre Fleury.Fleury was back in the city where he started his NHL career and spent more than a decade, helping to backstop the Penguins to multiple championships. The Penguins wanted to honor their old friend – and they did – but they also wanted to win.Third-period goals by Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel ruined Fleury’s homecoming as the Penguins defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 5-4 on Tuesday.”I think it was an important game, and obviously with (Fleury) coming in it added a lot of emotion,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. ”Once you get out there, you’re trying to win a game and he’s trying to do the same thing.”Fleury, who won three Stanley Cups with the Penguins – including the last two seasons – returned to Pittsburgh for the first time since Vegas selected him in the expansion draft last summer. Fleury, who stopped 33 shots, beat his former teammates in December in Las Vegas.”The game was (in Pittsburgh), so it was different,” Fleury said. ”It was very weird, but it was a game I’ll remember forever.”In the first meeting between the teams in Pittsburgh, Malkin gave the Penguins a 4-2 lead with his 30th of the season at 3:09 of the third period. Malkin Washington Capitals Hats Womens , who scored in his fifth straight game, became the fifth player in team history to score 30 goals six times.Kessel extended the lead to 5-2 a little more than three minutes later on a one-touch, backdoor feed from Malkin.Jake Guentzel, Ryan Reaves and Ian Cole also scored for Pittsburgh, which won for the fifth time in six games.Matt Murray, Fleury’s former understudy in Pittsburgh, made 21 saves to top his mentor.William Karlsson scored his 28th of the season on a power play for the Golden Knights. James Neal, who spent four seasons in Pittsburgh, got his 23rd.Ryan Carpenter and Jonathan Marchessault scored in the third period for Vegas, which nearly rallied from a three-goal deficit. The Western Conference leaders have 20 wins in their last 28 games.Fleury, the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NHL draft, spent 13 seasons in Pittsburgh and set team records for games and minutes played Custom Washington Capitals Jerseys , wins and shutouts.Murray stepped in when Fleury went down on the eve of the 2016 playoffs. He helped the Penguins to the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup and eventually grabbed the No. 1 job. Fleury waived his no-movement clause before the trade deadline last spring so the Penguins could protect Murray in the expansion draft.Fleury briefly regained the starting job before leaving Pittsburgh when Murray aggravated an injury during warmups prior to the first game of the playoffs. He won nine games and helped eliminate Columbus and Washington before Murray returned in the third round of the playoffs against Ottawa.The organization put together a tribute video for Fleury that was shown during a first-period stoppage in play. Fleury stood stoically behind his net and rested his glove on his stick as he took in the highlights. The crowd roared in appreciation and gave a long standing ovation to Fleury, who raised his stick in the air and waved to the fans.Murray took it all in from the other end.”Those are always fun to watch and they bring back good memories of the last two years, especially a guy like (Fleury), who was a big part of my development,” Murray said. ”He was a really good friend and mentor.”The crowd gave Fleury his first standing ovation of the night as soon as he hit the ice for pregame warmups. A larger-than-normal crowd of supporters gathered behind the visitors’ goal, many holding handmade signs and cheering each time he took the net.”We knew it was going to happen,” Murray said. ”He’s well-liked and everybody loves (Fleury) for good reason. He deserves every bit of appreciation he gets.”Fleury tapped Murray on the pads during warmups and the two had a short chat while stretching. At the end of warmups, Fleury skated to the red line and took a shot off the pads from Penguins defenseman Kris Letang to the delight of the crowd.”I didn’t know what to expect,” Fleury said. ”In the warmup, I had goosebumps. It’s a night I won’t forget.”NOTES: Pittsburgh won its season-high eighth straight home game. … Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist is week to week with a lower-body injury. Pittsburgh also scratched defensemen Matt Hunwick and Chad Ruhwedel. … Golden Knights forward Williams Carrier returned to Las Vegas to be evaluated by team doctors. The team also scratched defenseman Jason Garrison.UP NEXTGolden Knights: Complete a three-game road trip Thursday at San Jose.Penguins: At the Dallas Stars on Friday.— LOS ANGELES (AP) James Neal has been scoring big goals in pressure-packed playoff hockey games since way before the Vegas Golden Knights were even a gleam in owner Bill Foley’s eye.When this most remarkable expansion team needed a third-period goal to accomplish another incredible feat, their dependable veteran forward skated in on Jonathan Quick and got it with a flick of his wrist.Neal scored the tiebreaking goal with 5:37 to play, and the Golden Knights rallied from a late deficit to move to the brink of their first playoff series victory with a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday night.Cody Eakin tied it with 13:50 left www.jetsshoppro.com , and William Karlsson scored the eventual game-winner 21 seconds after Neal’s goal in a third-period flurry for the Golden Knights, whose storybook debut season just keeps getting more exciting and more outlandish.”Emotions were running high, and it’s physical out there,” Neal said in a voice that confirms he has seen this scenario before, even if his team hasn’t. ”It’s tough. But a lot of guys on our team have been in those situations before and won in them before.”Vegas has a 3-0 series lead and will go for a sweep in Game 4 on Tuesday night in Los Angeles.After opening their first postseason series with two home wins in front of their frenzied home crowd, the hockey upstarts from the desert coolly won their first road playoff game in front of an angry sellout crowd at Staples Center, where two recent Stanley Cup banners hang above the ice.It’s nothing that scares Neal, who had 80 games of playoff experience with Pittsburgh and Nashville before joining Vegas in the expansion draft. With a second straight overtime game looking likely, Neal took a pass from Nate Schmidt, coolly skated around Kings defenseman Oscar Fantenberg and put a shot between Quick’s legs.Marc-Andre Fleury made 37 saves for the Golden Knights, who became the first team to take a 3-0 series lead in this postseason.Quick stopped 23 shots, but the Golden Knights’ three-goal flurry doubled their goal total against the former Conn Smythe Trophy winner from the first 201 minutes of play in this series.The Knights make the improbable look easy Winnipeg Jets T-Shirts Womens , but only because of a balanced, hard-working lineup.”We finally pushed them back far enough to where our guys could make plays,” Schmidt said. ”That’s what happened in Vegas, and we did it here. We finally pushed them back to where our forwards could do some things.”Captain Anze Kopitar had a late goal and an assist, while Alex Iafallo scored his first career playoff goal in the first period. The Kings still haven’t won a playoff game at Staples Center since they last raised the Stanley Cup in June 2014.”I thought we made a good push here tonight, created a lot more zone time and made Fleury work a little harder than he had to this point in the series,” Los Angeles coach John Stevens said. ”But (we) had some critical errors at critical times along the wall (that) ended up costing us.”Vegas’ offensive burst broke open a third straight game of tense, defense-dominated playoff hockey between a franchise that won two Cups with that attitude and another that didn’t exist a year ago.The Kings were reeling from Neal’s goal when Karlsson converted Reilly Smith’s pass from the corner with a one-timer. Vegas needed it: Kopitar added a tipped goal with 2:04 to play, but the Kings couldn’t get the equalizer.While the Kings are down, they know they’re not out: They rallied from an 0-3 series deficit in the first round in 2014 against San Jose.”Oh yeah, we trust in ourselves, and it’s been done before Winnipeg Jets Hoodies Womens ,” said Iafallo, whose goal gave Los Angeles its first lead of the series. ”We look at each other, look across the room, and we trust each other. We can definitely do it.”Drew Doughty played more than 27 1/2 minutes in the star defenseman’s return to the Kings’ blue line following a one-game suspension for hitting William Carrier in the series opener. Doughty also had partner Jake Muzzin back by his side after he missed the previous seven games with an upper-body injury.Neither team got much offensive traction in the first two periods, but the physical tone of the series stuck. Erik Haula butt-ended Kopitar in the face after a cross-check, but went unpenalized.”We get a guy (Doughty) suspended for making a hockey play,” Stevens said. ”(Haula) butt-ends one of the best players in the world in the face with the butt-end of his stick, so if I was confused before, I’m bewildered now. That’s an intent-to-injure play.”But the Knights kept pressing and tied it after a prolonged sequence of dominance in which Colin Miller’s shot hit the post before Eakin buried Ryan Carpenter’s cross-ice pass.NOTES: Forward Tomas Tatar was a healthy scratch for the Golden Knights. The Slovak scorer had played in all 22 games since Vegas acquired him from Detroit, but has just two points in the last 10. … Kopitar’s 21st career playoff goal moved him past Marcel Dionne for sixth in franchise playoff goals. The captain is third in team history with 45 assists. … Margot Robbie, David Beckham and injured Dodgers slugger Justin Turner attended the game.—